don’t buy them at the store,” Steve said, bracing himself as the truck bounced along the country highway. Besides, he didn’t want company. He just wanted the meal that awaited them at base camp, then to collapse on the guest bed in Josh’s apartment.
Josh raised his head long enough to glance at Steve. “We’d have to clean him up first. Not even Mr. Magic could get a woman looking like that.”
“Mr. Magic?” one of the younger guys asked.
Josh lay back again, casually folding his hands across his stomach. “Women love him. Go figure. Personally, I don’t see it.”
Steve forced himself to smile, relieved to have something to focus on besides death and flames. He could grieve and feel sorry for himself when he was alone later. Right now he had a role to fill—the fun guy, the one who couldn’t wait to charge the deadly fire again, then dance with the girls and hoist a beer to his comrades. “When you’ve got it…”
Cole leaned forward, his white teeth peeking from behind his sooty face. “So come out with us tonight. You bailed the other night, and we wanna see you in action.”
“I don’t—”
“Unless you’re afraid of some competition,” another guy shouted.
“I got twenty on Kimball,” Cole said.
“I wouldn’t take that bet,” Josh advised the others. “Especially since it would be so easy for him to hook up with an old flame.”
Steve cocked his head. Who did he know—
“Laine Sheehan is in town.”
His heart stuttered. He and Laine had dated the summer after her college graduation. He, Josh and Tommy had been roommates, living in Fairfax, working for the forestry service as smoke jumpers. Cocky and wild, they’d cut a now-notorious path through the parties and clubs of Redding and one night had run into Laine and some other women from Fairfax.
The shy, reserved blonde had stopped Steve dead in his tracks.
Though Josh and Tommy had never really understood his single-minded interest in Laine, Steve had soaked up her gentleness, her golden-brown eyes, her complete adoration of him. At the end of the summer he’d asked her to move in with him, but she couldn’t deal with his dangerous job, and she’d gone back home to Texas.
At the time, he’d been resentful of her asking him to choose her or his job, but seven years later he supposed he understood her hesitation to get more involved with him. Especially in light of Tommy’s death.
He’d never completely gotten over her.
“How do you know she’s here?” he asked Josh, feeling the gazes of the other men on him.
“Saw her the other night at Suds.”
Steve raised his eyebrows. “What was Laine doing at Suds?”
“Drinkin’.”
“Drink—” The truck jerked to a halt before Steve could finish. Since they had to consult with forestry service officials about the fire’s progress and get their schedule for the following day, he didn’t have a chance to question Josh further until dinner.
As he dug into baked chicken, macaroni and cheese and green beans, he was grateful for the delicious food. The churches in Fairfax had banded together to feed the dozens of teams fighting the fires, and they’d pulled out all the stops. He didn’t even want to think about any of those people losing their homes and businesses.
“So why was Laine Sheehan drinking at Suds?” he asked Josh quietly as they sat next to each other in the bustling food tent located in the base camp’s center.
He shrugged. “I didn’t ask, and she didn’t say.”
“Some help you are.”
“I don’t know why you’re still getting worked up about that woman. You’re complete opposites.”
“Thank you, Dr. Phil.”
“And, sorry to be critical here, but she’s not up to your usual physical standards.”
“Just because she doesn’t have a double-D chest—”
“Though, come to think of it, she looked pretty good the other night.”
Steve put down his fork. “She did? How good?”
“I don’t know, man. Just good.” He pushed his plate aside. “And if you’re so interested, I heard she’s staying out at her aunt’s and covering the fire for some big-time magazine.”
“Laine is covering the fire?”
“That’s what I heard.”
“This fire. Our fire.”
“Yes.”
“She dumped me because she thought my job was too dangerous—”
“And don’t forget she wasn’t wild about your popularity with women.”
“She never said that. I just got that feeling.”
“I told you at the time that I agreed with you. I still do. Women can get real possessive.”
“And men don’t?” Steve waved away the comment before Josh, who had gotten into countless fights over some guy looking at his date, could respond. “We basically broke up over my job, and now she’s covering the fire.”
“Kinda weird the way life turns out, huh?”
“Does she realize she’ll have to get reasonably close to the fire to take pictures of it?”
“I assume so. Laine was a quiet one, but no one could call her that naive.” Josh paused. “I guess this means you’re going out with us tonight.”
For a minute, Steve wondered if seeing Laine again was a good idea. He’d already spent a lot of time the last few days reflecting on the past. The path he’d taken. His regrets and mistakes.
His life had been one long adventure. As the youngest of four and the son of a firefighter tragically killed when Steve was only nine, he’d been indulged and encouraged to pursue the never-ending energy and curiosity that filled him. High school and a year at a university in Europe. Firefighter and paramedic training. Working in the Atlanta Fire Department. Then smoke jumper training and tackling one of the most challenging—and dangerous—aspects of firefighting.
Then one spring he and another firefighter had been trapped for several hours along a ridge during a wildfire. The experience spooked Steve. He’d never found the same level of commitment to smoke jumping or forest fires since. So, he’d gone back to his home in north Georgia. Though part of him felt as if he was running from fears and insecurities he didn’t want to face, and that he was betraying the memory of his heroic father, he’d been happy.
He’d discovered he didn’t need constant life-and-death struggles to fulfill himself. He could
